Quiet Steps - Think Aloud

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During my 3 years and a half stay in Brisbane, I have managed to witness Quiet Steps live performances at least 15-20 times. I’ve seen them played a house show, a warehouse, a “proper” music venue, you name it. I’ve seen them at their good and bad days. I guess I would like to say that I have gotten quite attached to their music and their live shows, but I’ll try not to be too biased here.

Quiet Steps released their first ep in 2007. It was fairly well-received, I think. I do not know how many copies they sold, but their shows around 2007-2008 always had at least quite a few people showing interest towards the band. I recall their set at No Culture Festival II and La Quiete show as being quite memorable. The way things were might have had something to do with similar style bands like James Dean and Drowned Out being around at the time.

Fast forward a few years, Quiet Steps finally released their first ever full length, entitled Think Aloud. Some of the songs on this album have been in their setlist for quite sometime now. Songs like “Assimilate” and “One Breath” were introduced as early as 2007/2008. They had a handful of songs ready by early 2009. I even remember paying a visit on one of their mixing sessions.

You’re probably wondering what took them so long to release the album. Well, I don’t know all the details behind the delay. I do know that they were trying to figure out how to release the album, if any label who would be interested to put it out, looking at their options, etc etc, that sort of thing. Maybe it had taken them longer that it should, then again maybe not. It’s their decision after all.

On to the good stuff now, Quiet Steps decided to go the DIY route and self-released their new full-length. They also urge people to download the album on the internet for free, which have been put up by the band. I believe the band is running a limited batch of hand-made packaged CD-R of Think Aloud, so get in touch with the band quickly if you’re keen for a copy!

How is Think Aloud compared to their debut EP? You can tell it’s still the same band. However, it’s easy to tell that the band has progressed a lot from their debut. The songwriting is still as good as ever while new ideas are being introduced. Clean vocals are present in the middle part of “Measure Reaction” (one of the very highlights of the album for me); “Exclusion” has an amazing danceable instrumental bit at the end, and “Surrounded” is a fast punk number running at 24 seconds. I also feel obliged to tell you that there is a lot of killer riffs on this album. The bass in particular stands out with its jazzy and yet aggressive style of playing.

I don’t know much about production, but it’s noticeably better than their ep. It’s not as clean and produced. It sounds fuller and denser. The vocals sounded as if the mic was put on one side of the room and the band at the other.

Think Aloud is an excellent first full-length by Quiet Steps. I like the direction they took with the album and the amount of creativity they put into it. At this point, they don’t really sound like anyone. I feel like comparison to Sinaloa isn’t doing them justice anymore. Let’s just hope we don’t have to wait another three years for another album.

















Quiet Steps - Think Aloud

Ghaust

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Starting out as a hardcore punk band with metallic influences or as some people like to call “crossover”, Neurosis slowly but surely ditched their initial style for a more experiment sound. Taking cues from bands that doesn’t fit into the standard of “metal” such as Godflesh and Swans, their later sound is heavy, repetitive and yet sparse. There is more focus on the atmosphere being created. Synths, tribal drumming, chants, acoustic guitar passages were all being utilized to achieve a big, thunderous, epic sonic assault.

A band called Isis similarly followed their steps a few years later. Guitarist/songwriter Aaron Turner is also the founder of Hydra Head Records which has produced countless of new generation of bands playing their own twists of extreme music rooted in hardcore punk and metal.

It was only a matter of time before the world took notice. Thanks to the presence of the internet, bands started popping out from different parts of the world. The term “post-metal” and “post-rock” was on people’s lips on internet messageboards and music forums. And before you know it, bands like Russian Circles, Mogwai and Explosions In The Sky got invited to play music festivals all around the world.

I saw Ghaust for the first time in December 2008 and to be honest, it didn’t make much of an impression on me (the fact that their songs are longer than 5 minutes didn’t really help, I have an attention span of a 10-year old). However, with subsequent listens I became more and more absorbed by the music. One day it just clicked with me and I said to myself “this is good!”.

It would be easy to dismiss Ghaust as simply trying to ride the “post-metal” wave since there are only a very few bands playing this sort of music in Indonesia. But if you listen to their music closely, then you’d find that they actually put their own spin and ideas and it’s actually pretty damn excellent.

Consisted of only a guitar and a drum, Ghaust choose to keep things straight-forward, riffs to riffs, one section to another. They don’t rely on huge built-up, subtle chord progressions like Isis did. What makes their music interesting is the fact that they can go from a melodic mid-tempo section, to a fast hardcore-punk inspired bit, to a quiet ambient/post-rock passage in a blink of an eye. The closest I can compare them to would probably be Pelican's early stuff. They share similar guitar tone, although Pelican's is more bass-y and Ghaust’s has more clarity and crisp. They both have that doom but melodic riffs thing going for them. Neither of them have vocals, either.

For a relatively new band (starting in mid 2005, I believe), Ghaust have made a name for themselves. They’ve released a self-titled cd and few splits with Pazahora from Singapore and Aseethe from USA, and Black Waves from Germany. They’ve also just returned from what I heard, a relatively successful Malaysian and Singapore tour along with another local, Kelelawar Malam.

I believe that Ghaust has a potential to improve themselves with each release. Looking at their level of productivity and ambition, a tour to a western country doesn’t seem that far out of reach if they can manage not to break up too soon.

Here are a couple videos from their set at Tribute to Joneh show at Rossi a few weeks ago. It’s a shame that their set was so short. I will say that it’s not the best Ghaust performance I’ve seen. The drummer looks a bit tired and unenthusiastic although the latter is probably just how he looks :D

Enjoy the videos, fellas.

Ghaust - Return Fire



Ghaust - Sleep And Release